Resacralize the Unknown

"Resacralize the Unknown" arrived on time, after a pause of two years, more or less habitual for the band. At first sight, on his twelfth album under the Clandestine Blaze banner, Mikko Aspa is trying to break away from the viscous tentacles of doom metal that marked with its gloomy seal his two previous works "Tranquility of Death" (2018) and "Secrets of Laceration" (2021). But this illusion does not last long: already the second "Tombstone of Christianity" is a glaring doom metal-ish piece.

The composition starts as a doom metal-ish or even sludgy experiment from Darkthrone – yes, we mean late Darkthrone, which no longer proposed that "good old" Darkthrone stuff, – but there is more to come, then we hear a riff in the spirit of early Bethlehem, yes, something like that, and after it we can resurrect in our memory none other than My Dying Bride. Well, it's too doom metal-ish song for a black metal album, and, to tell the truth, forgettable.

Another strongly pronounced doom metal-ish composition is the fifth "Bring Me the Head". At the beginning, it also reminds us of Darkthrone, when they, as commonly cited, ceased to be themselves. Although there is no My Dying Bride vibe here, the chorus with a piercing solo is sustained (by way of some compensation) in a somewhat post black metal manner, there is nothing to do but to assume the influence of cooperation with Mgła.

We don't deny that these two songs are good in their own way, the problem is not that they are slow and doom metal-ish: both are quite piercing enough, but they still have emotionality in the first place of the musical texture, not atmosphere at all, which is not very consistent with black metal canons.

Oddly enough, this tendency is confirmed by the title song. And although it contains fast sections, the basis of its construction is a slow passage with a piercing solo. Well, for that matter, this is neither doom metal nor atmospheric black metal. In the current conditions, due to its excessive emotionality, this fragment can be interpreted only as post black metal too. The song is built on repetitions, so this melodic shrillness, which, by the way, is not one of Clandestine Blaze's signature moves, leads even more away from the orthodox black metal direction. And although "Resacralize the Unknown" seems a little too sophisticated, it's not the most interesting piece on the album to be a title song, seriously, in other songs Mikko shows more imagination. Not to mention post black metal attitude – this is not the best tendency, so to speak. Right, it never hurts to bring new blood into your art, but you could just limit yourself to some post black metal bridge.

And in fact, even in his fast pieces, Mikko only pretends that he is trying to break away from the viscous tentacles of doom metal: it is clear already during "The Birth of the Sun" that this time he adroitly disguised his branded doomy quality as a black metal attack. It's all about these dark and gloomy riffs that accompany blast beat drumming: these are some fragmentary riffs with hovering long-sounding chords, really very interesting passages, upon our word, they create at speed utterly tragic atmosphere.

Mikko uses this "ragged spurt" manner quite often on "Resacralize the Unknown". In the very first song "The Birth of the Sun" before a rather mediocre (albeit piercing) solo, we hear a ragged palm-muted riff with some howl at the end: it pressures obscurely and cautiously, almost creeps. A no less significant example: after the opening groovy somber riff with palm muting in "Resacralize the Unknown", there is a "ragged spurt" by chords, during which the drums switch to a fast part.

Yes, Mikko still manages to remain original within narrow orthodox boundaries. Almost every song has at least one extraordinary riff that was not formed according to the usual patterns: the aforementioned doom metal-ish Darkthronish riff in "Tombstone of Christianity" is interesting for its soft palm muting, which turns into slightly dissonant guitar picking; the second part of the opening/main tremolo-picked riff of "Only the Shadows of This World" is a rather gloomy Darkthronish riff as such, then high string tremolo picking is added to it, and as a result we get a very delicate melody that needs to be carefully listened to; the opening/main riff of the fourth "Our Cross to Bear" is a pretty interesting stumbling tune; and the opening/main riff of the final "Mass Graves of All Eternity" is some wandering, with piercing tremolo picking on the end, its tragic atmosphere is enhanced by muffled singing, these are short single exclamations in a clear voice, they are felt as if in a fog, – all this makes a strong impression.

It is also obvious that Mikko is not destined to get rid of the Norwegian roots in his music. In addition to the repeatedly mentioned Darkthrone, an Immortal touch can often be detected on "Resacralize the Unknown". Already in the first half of "The Birth of the Sun" there is an Immortal-like riff. In its turn, "Our Cross to Bear" builds on a roll call between a distinctive somehow stumbling riff and a vital tremolo picked riff in the vein of "Battles in the North". Oddly enough, there is a slow passage in the spirit of Immortal even in "Bring Me the Head". While "Mass Graves of All Eternity" includes a bit weird guitar picking, however, it has a pretty strong early Burzum vibe.

Summary. Unlike many black metal veterans, Mikko doesn't dwell on the "good old days" at all. His doom metal songs are not good enough, although they are also quite original. Also, we do not like some of the current tendencies in his art, or rather, the degree of their manifestation. But for a look both fresh and old school, "Resacralize the Unknown" is quite a remarkable work.

The Metal Observer